Country Fried Rock 1512: Hollis Brown's Mike Montali on the Making of '3 Shots'
Summary
This week in 2015, we're diving into a great conversation about the New York City-based band Hollis Brown. Front man and lead songwriter Mike Montali shares how independent record labels have been key to their journey, especially when it comes to getting them into industry events that led to some pretty major touring opportunities.
We also talk about how the band’s sound has evolved, with their upcoming album 3 Shots showing a real shift in style. It’s got a more polished production compared to their earlier stuff, and you can really hear the growth. Mike opens up about what it was like working in the studio with producer Don Diego, and all the behind-the-scenes effort that went into bringing this new project to life.
Throughout the chat, we touch on the power of music to transform, not just for listeners, but for the artists themselves, and how Hollis Brown stays true to their creative vision.
Show Notes
- We catch up with Hollis Brown, the NYC-based band known for blending garage rock roots with evolving, more refined sounds.
- Lead songwriter Mike Montali shares how the band's sound has grown, from the raw energy of their debut Ride on the Train to the polished production of their upcoming album 3 Shots.
- Mike talks about intentionally moving away from their earlier, grittier style to explore a more immersive and layered sound.
- A big part of that shift came from working with producer Don Diego, whose quiet studio in the Poconos offered the perfect space for deep creative focus.
- To get 3 Shots just right, the band sifted through more than 50 songs, narrowing it down to 10 tracks that best represented their current direction.
- That careful selection process reflects their dedication not only to songwriting, but also to creating a cohesive album experience.
- Mike also talks about how independent record labels have played a vital role in supporting the band, giving them both credibility and the chance to reach broader audiences through tours and industry connections.
- Speaking of tours, Hollis Brown has some big plans, including hitting the road with Counting Crows and Citizen Cope, an exciting step forward in their growing career.
- Mike reflects on the power of touring, the energy of live shows, and the bonds built with other artists along the way.
- The conversation wraps up with Mike sharing his excitement for connecting with fans and getting Three Shots out into the world.
- Overall, the episode is a deep dive into Hollis Brown’s artistic journey, highlighting their resilience, creative growth, and unwavering commitment to authentic music-making.
Here's What We Wrote Back in 2015
Hollis Brown rocked CMJ & SXSW so hard that they ended up on this summer’s tour with Counting Crows and Citizen Cope. The NYC band, fronted by songwriter, Mike Montali, tours extensively in the US and Europe, building audiences who yearn for their new albums, including their brand new one, 3 Shots, out 5/5/15 on Jullian Records.
Buy Hollis Brown’s music here.
Takeaways
- In this episode, Mike Montali, lead songwriter for Hollis Brown, opens up about the band’s creative journey and how their music has evolved over time.
- Their new album, 3 Shots, marks a big step forward in both sound and production, showing how far they’ve come since their early garage rock days.
- Mike talks about how independent record labels have been a huge part of their success, helping them get into the right rooms and onto bigger stages.
- The band recorded 3 Shots in a quiet, tucked-away studio in the Poconos, an ideal spot for staying focused and experimenting with their sound.
- One key part of their process? Road testing songs live before heading into the studio. It helped them narrow things down to the best of the best for the album.
- Hollis Brown is also feeling the love from their growing fanbase, and they’re excited about how that support continues to open new doors for them.
Links
- Hollis Brown
- Hollis Brown on Bandcamp
- You may also like this conversation with Lilly Hiatt
- After you buy music from these musicians or see a show, we would love your support with a few bucks in our Tip Jar
- Sloane Spencer now hosts a Gen X sleep podcast, Sleep with Rock Stars
Mentioned in this Episode
- Hollis Brown
- Counting Crows
- Citizen Cope
- Julian Records
- Don Diego
- Adam Landry
- Jesse Mallon
- Black Keys
- Iggy Pop
- Kieran Kelly
- Converse
- Velvet Underground
- St. Paul and the Broken Bones
- Replacements
- Big Star
- Nikki Lane
- John Agnello
- Drivin n Cryin
Recommended If You Like
Hollis Brown, Country Fried Rock, independent record labels, Mike Montali, new album Three Shots, music evolution, touring with Counting Crows, music production process, indie band interviews, songwriting journey, vinyl records, music industry events, artist-friendly labels, Pledge Music, creative collaborations, Nashville music scene, live band recording, European music tours, Americana music festivals, record release strategies
Transcript
Speaker A
This week on Country Fried Rock, we're talking with Hollis Brown, a band out of New York City.
Their lead songwriter, Mike Montale, shares with us how they've benefited from the support of independent record labels, as well as playing industry events that have led to large tours. It all starts with making great music, and that's the brand new album from Hollis Brown called Three Shots today on Country Fried Rock.
Speaker B
My guest today on Country Fried Rock is Mike Montale of Hollis Brown with a new record coming out May 5th called three shots. Welcome.
Speaker C
Hey, thanks for having me.
Speaker B
I followed your band for a while, and as I've listened to the different records, your sound has been evolving. What's happening for Hollis Brown?
Speaker C
Yeah, we're definitely evolving, that's for sure. I mean, I think every great band does evolve. You know, we don't want to make the same record over and over again. Definitely.
People noticing an evolution in the. In the records is kind of cool. I think means we're doing what we set out to do.
First record was Ride on the Train, which we put out 2013, and that was kind of more of a garage rock vibe, just like us in a home studio of our producer Adam Landry, in Nashville. And we just set up for, like, 10 days in his studio, like, in a circle pretty much, and just played everything live and, like, raw.
And we wanted to do that record that way because it was our first crack at it, and we wanted to record that way because that was the band we were.
But this one, we wanted to evolve a little bit and produce it a little more and really dive into the recording process more than we did on the first record. So it's definitely an evolution.
Speaker B
So you mentioned bringing in some different things to the productions with Three Shots. Tell me a little more about that.
Speaker C
Yeah, we recorded it with Don Diego, the producer, on this record, and we went to his studio as a house in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, and it's really, like, in the middle of nowhere. There's nothing around it at all. We went there, and we just pretty much sat and in his house for, like, two weeks.
We didn't leave, and we just focused on the music. We set it up in his living room as a live band, and we tracked a lot of the instrumentation there. But then we went back and we redid.
For the first record, all the vocals were live in the same room with the band.
This record, we tracked the vocals, and we did the vocals separately, and we did some guitars separately and a little more of a modern style of recording onto Pro Tools. And the whole nine than the original than Right on the Train was. So it was definitely a. We try to up the production quality on this one.
And I think you can hear that.
Speaker B
How did y' all connect with Don?
Speaker C
Don produced a friend of ours named Jesse Mallon, and we went on tour with Jesse in the uk And I asked Jesse, you know, we're trying to make a record. Well, what happened was we got asked to do something for Record Store Day last year, which was a Velvet Underground cover record.
So we did a bunch of Velvet Underground songs for Record Store Day, and it was like only 500 copies made available. It was just like a cool niche, just a fun project to do. And we had a tight recording schedule. We had to do it all in two days.
So I asked Jesse if he knew anybody, and he recommended Don.
So we did that record with Don, and then we felt with this record, we should go again with Don, since he did such a great job with the Hollis Brown Gets Loaded record. You know, we're friends, so we're all friends in New York City. And so it worked out.
Relationships, like, they take time to really feel comfortable, especially when recording and stuff.
You know, you got to really all have the same vision and, you know, because one thing could throw it off if a producer you're not feeling comfortable with, you're feeling forced, you're not feeling the soul or, you know, the performance or everything can go it off. But we just felt really comfortable with Don, and we were really comfortable as a band after being on the road for most of 2014.
So we just felt like it was the right time and right place, and we're all really proud of the record.
Speaker B
Do you all road test those songs before recording?
Speaker C
Yeah. You know, you take your whole life to write your first record, and then you have like two years to write the next record.
So we, Homie and John, we've been friends since high school, so we've known each other quite a while. And we've written so many songs together. And we just wrote about 50 songs or 60 songs.
And the thing about the first album, Ride on the Train, was we had all these songs. We went in and we recorded that. And then we had a year before the album even came out. And then it's been two years since then.
So we really had like three years to nail down a bunch of songs that he's written or I've written or we wrote together. And then we just took them all to the band, you know, at least 50 songs. And then we took it to Don and then we pared that down to about 20 songs.
And then from there we try to demo them and see what's going on. And then we recorded 12 of them, and then 10 made the record. It was a process, you know.
Speaker A
Hey, y', all, this is Sloan Spencer, the host of Country Fried Rock. We've had an incredible year with more people finding us on the radio and our podcast than we ever imagined.
Speaker B
Thank you all so much.
Speaker A
Careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
Speaker C
Hey, this is Mike from Hollis Brown on Country Fried Rock. I think it's all time and place.
You know, we weren't too rushed to have this album done or any schedule, so we really took our time and made sure we all believed in the songs first and foremost, and we believed in the way we were going to record it and came out really good.
Speaker B
I know that y' all were on the road heavily during 2014. What is that looking like for you all with the new record coming out?
Speaker C
Oh, yeah, we're going to be on the road quite a bit, actually. The new record comes out May 5th. We'll be. We're actually going to be on tour with the Counting Crows this summer.
It'll be us, Citizen Cope and the Counting Crows. We're doing 40 cities in the United States, and then we're going to go to Europe after that and headline in Europe for a month.
So we'll be on the road for about four months, probably promoting the new record. Yeah, I love it over there. We went there last year as well. I think we did 31 shows in, like, 32 days in about nine countries.
So kind of a whirlwind experience. But, you know, it's. It's such a cool vibe out there, and everybody's supportive of rock music, and we just love seeing bands actually play.
You know, sometimes in the States you don't get that vibe Die Hard as you do out there. So it's not. It was nice.
Speaker B
Well, so how did that connection come about?
Speaker C
We put Right on the Train out with a live natural sound record, and I think it just started taking off, and I think the label has a natural following in Europe. So we had some pretty good press and some pretty good attention just from putting it out with them.
And then it started to take off in the Netherlands and a couple other countries. So we. We had some festivals and we got a booking agent out there, and we just did it the old fashioned way and started tour out there to build it.
But we went out there three times, so we went out there twice last Year once was with Jesse Madeline where we just did the UK for two weeks and then the other one was months tour, five week tour or something like that. So we just kind of built it, you know, we got some good press and started seeing that people were buying the record.
So we went after it and went out there and started playing.
Speaker B
What does an indie label like that bring to a band like yours?
Speaker C
Can only speak for us, but it brought us some validity. They're really taste makers.
Especially alive is in terms of that style of music, especially for a band coming out with their first album, you know, instead of doing it ourselves.
The fact that we had a record label that's been out for 20 years, that's put out the Black Keys and Iggy Pop and a bunch of other bands that people know, I think it just gave us some validity and it gave us some credibility and it gave people definitely in Europe, it was just a reason to say, oh, they must be worth a listen, you know, if these guys are putting it out. That really did help us this time around.
Speaker B
You all are doing some things a little bit differently.
Speaker C
Started doing the record with pledge music because, you know, we wanted to make the record that we wanted to make and that we felt was right and we wanted to keep the audience that we built, you know, involved in what we're doing. So we wanted people to say, hey, this is us right now working on this song in the studio. Check it out.
And pledge music is cool because it's like a crowdsourcing site, but you can really take part in the process of the record. So you see it from start to finish. You can watch it on the website, you know.
So we did that to fund the recording so we can make the record we wanted to and how we wanted to and have it sound how we wanted to.
And once we had the record in hand, it's coming out now on Julian Records, which is a label based out of New York City and they're kind of a very artist friendly label. So basically they let you make the record you want and the album cover and everything.
You basically present them with a finished product and then you work hand in hand on the best strategy to get it out with our management, start the cycle how you want it to. You can hire whoever you want for pr, for radio, for this, that or the other thing.
So it's really, it's not like you're just in some mass machine that's already established and they just throw you in there whether or not you fit. You know, it's really artist Friendly. And they pick who works with each artist very specifically based on the record you make.
For us, it worked out, and we're really happy with it.
And I think in an artist at our band, our size, the size we are now, you know, we couldn't have asked for a better, more ideal situation to launch the new record, because sometimes if you're on a major label, you know, you're a small fish in kind of a big pond, and they already have their wheels in motion, and they work with the same people all the time who might not get the record you made, you know, might be more chances for not the best bang for your buck, so to speak.
So I think with Julian, it really gave us an opportunity to first and foremost be creative and also try and get the music heard the way we wanted it to be heard, you know?
Speaker B
Well, so you mentioned album art. How did you all make those decisions?
Speaker C
Well, we called a guy named Jeffrey Crowe, who did our first record. He's a live records go to guy for album art and friends with him.
So we were looking for artists to make the record, and I called Jeff and I said, hey, Jeff, you know, we want to do something called Three Shots. Soon to be wife said, you know, it'd be a really cool album cover. Would be if you just have a bullet look like it went through the whole.
The whole album, you know, so, like, to be the front is bullet hole, and then on the back is like the exit hole, you know, so. Wow, that's kind of really cool.
So I told Jeff about that idea, and he kind of sent over four or five different looks and kind of just picked the one we wanted and then showed it to the label, and pretty easy.
Speaker B
And you've got some vinyl to really appreciate that art with.
Speaker C
Yeah, yeah. Well, that was the thing that struck me, because once she said it out, like, yeah, on a vinyl, you know, that would look so cool.
Just you see one side, and you turn the vinyl over, and it just looks like a bullet hole through a record. That would be really cool.
Speaker B
What did that creatively allow you all to do with liner notes, et cetera?
Speaker C
Well, you definitely put more into the vinyl, you know, this time I wanted the art to be a little more minimal, one cool image that...
Transcript
This week on Country Fried Rock, we're talking with Hollis Brown, a band out of New York City.
Speaker A:Their lead songwriter, Mike Montale, shares with us how they've benefited from the support of independent record labels, as well as playing industry events that have led to large tours.
Speaker A:It all starts with making great music, and that's the brand new album from Hollis Brown called Three Shots today on Country Fried Rock.
Speaker B:My guest today on Country Fried Rock is Mike Montale of Hollis Brown with a new record coming out May 5th called three shots.
Speaker B:Welcome.
Speaker C:Hey, thanks for having me.
Speaker B:I followed your band for a while, and as I've listened to the different records, your sound has been evolving.
Speaker B:What's happening for Hollis Brown?
Speaker C:Yeah, we're definitely evolving, that's for sure.
Speaker C:I mean, I think every great band does evolve.
Speaker C:You know, we don't want to make the same record over and over again.
Speaker C:Definitely.
Speaker C:People noticing an evolution in the.
Speaker C:In the records is kind of cool.
Speaker C:I think means we're doing what we set out to do.
Speaker C: n the Train, which we put out: Speaker C:And we just set up for, like, 10 days in his studio, like, in a circle pretty much, and just played everything live and, like, raw.
Speaker C:And we wanted to do that record that way because it was our first crack at it, and we wanted to record that way because that was the band we were.
Speaker C:But this one, we wanted to evolve a little bit and produce it a little more and really dive into the recording process more than we did on the first record.
Speaker C:So it's definitely an evolution.
Speaker B:So you mentioned bringing in some different things to the productions with Three Shots.
Speaker B:Tell me a little more about that.
Speaker C:Yeah, we recorded it with Don Diego, the producer, on this record, and we went to his studio as a house in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, and it's really, like, in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker C:There's nothing around it at all.
Speaker C:We went there, and we just pretty much sat and in his house for, like, two weeks.
Speaker C:We didn't leave, and we just focused on the music.
Speaker C:We set it up in his living room as a live band, and we tracked a lot of the instrumentation there.
Speaker C:But then we went back and we redid.
Speaker C:For the first record, all the vocals were live in the same room with the band.
Speaker C:This record, we tracked the vocals, and we did the vocals separately, and we did some guitars separately and a little more of a modern style of recording onto Pro Tools.
Speaker C:And the whole nine than the original than Right on the Train was.
Speaker C:So it was definitely a.
Speaker C:We try to up the production quality on this one.
Speaker C:And I think you can hear that.
Speaker B:How did y' all connect with Don?
Speaker C:Don produced a friend of ours named Jesse Mallon, and we went on tour with Jesse in the uk And I asked Jesse, you know, we're trying to make a record.
Speaker C:Well, what happened was we got asked to do something for Record Store Day last year, which was a Velvet Underground cover record.
Speaker C:So we did a bunch of Velvet Underground songs for Record Store Day, and it was like only 500 copies made available.
Speaker C:It was just like a cool niche, just a fun project to do.
Speaker C:And we had a tight recording schedule.
Speaker C:We had to do it all in two days.
Speaker C:So I asked Jesse if he knew anybody, and he recommended Don.
Speaker C:So we did that record with Don, and then we felt with this record, we should go again with Don, since he did such a great job with the Hollis Brown Gets Loaded record.
Speaker C:You know, we're friends, so we're all friends in New York City.
Speaker C:And so it worked out.
Speaker C:Relationships, like, they take time to really feel comfortable, especially when recording and stuff.
Speaker C:You know, you got to really all have the same vision and, you know, because one thing could throw it off if a producer you're not feeling comfortable with, you're feeling forced, you're not feeling the soul or, you know, the performance or everything can go it off.
Speaker C: being on the road for most of: Speaker C:So we just felt like it was the right time and right place, and we're all really proud of the record.
Speaker B:Do you all road test those songs before recording?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:You know, you take your whole life to write your first record, and then you have like two years to write the next record.
Speaker C:So we, Homie and John, we've been friends since high school, so we've known each other quite a while.
Speaker C:And we've written so many songs together.
Speaker C:And we just wrote about 50 songs or 60 songs.
Speaker C:And the thing about the first album, Ride on the Train, was we had all these songs.
Speaker C:We went in and we recorded that.
Speaker C:And then we had a year before the album even came out.
Speaker C:And then it's been two years since then.
Speaker C:So we really had like three years to nail down a bunch of songs that he's written or I've written or we wrote together.
Speaker C:And then we just took them all to the band, you know, at least 50 songs.
Speaker C:And then we took it to Don and then we pared that down to about 20 songs.
Speaker C:And then from there we try to demo them and see what's going on.
Speaker C:And then we recorded 12 of them, and then 10 made the record.
Speaker C:It was a process, you know.
Speaker A:Hey, y', all, this is Sloan Spencer, the host of Country Fried Rock.
Speaker A:We've had an incredible year with more people finding us on the radio and our podcast than we ever imagined.
Speaker B:Thank you all so much.
Speaker A:Careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
Speaker C:Hey, this is Mike from Hollis Brown on Country Fried Rock.
Speaker C:I think it's all time and place.
Speaker C:You know, we weren't too rushed to have this album done or any schedule, so we really took our time and made sure we all believed in the songs first and foremost, and we believed in the way we were going to record it and came out really good.
Speaker B: re on the road heavily during: Speaker B:What is that looking like for you all with the new record coming out?
Speaker C:Oh, yeah, we're going to be on the road quite a bit, actually.
Speaker C:The new record comes out May 5th.
Speaker C:We'll be.
Speaker C:We're actually going to be on tour with the Counting Crows this summer.
Speaker C:It'll be us, Citizen Cope and the Counting Crows.
Speaker C:We're doing 40 cities in the United States, and then we're going to go to Europe after that and headline in Europe for a month.
Speaker C:So we'll be on the road for about four months, probably promoting the new record.
Speaker C:Yeah, I love it over there.
Speaker C:We went there last year as well.
Speaker C:I think we did 31 shows in, like, 32 days in about nine countries.
Speaker C:So kind of a whirlwind experience.
Speaker C:But, you know, it's.
Speaker C:It's such a cool vibe out there, and everybody's supportive of rock music, and we just love seeing bands actually play.
Speaker C:You know, sometimes in the States you don't get that vibe Die Hard as you do out there.
Speaker C:So it's not.
Speaker C:It was nice.
Speaker B:Well, so how did that connection come about?
Speaker C:We put Right on the Train out with a live natural sound record, and I think it just started taking off, and I think the label has a natural following in Europe.
Speaker C:So we had some pretty good press and some pretty good attention just from putting it out with them.
Speaker C:And then it started to take off in the Netherlands and a couple other countries.
Speaker C:So we.
Speaker C:We had some festivals and we got a booking agent out there, and we just did it the old fashioned way and started tour out there to build it.
Speaker C:But we went out there three times, so we went out there twice last Year once was with Jesse Madeline where we just did the UK for two weeks and then the other one was months tour, five week tour or something like that.
Speaker C:So we just kind of built it, you know, we got some good press and started seeing that people were buying the record.
Speaker C:So we went after it and went out there and started playing.
Speaker B:What does an indie label like that bring to a band like yours?
Speaker C:Can only speak for us, but it brought us some validity.
Speaker C:They're really taste makers.
Speaker C:Especially alive is in terms of that style of music, especially for a band coming out with their first album, you know, instead of doing it ourselves.
Speaker C:The fact that we had a record label that's been out for 20 years, that's put out the Black Keys and Iggy Pop and a bunch of other bands that people know, I think it just gave us some validity and it gave us some credibility and it gave people definitely in Europe, it was just a reason to say, oh, they must be worth a listen, you know, if these guys are putting it out.
Speaker C:That really did help us this time around.
Speaker B:You all are doing some things a little bit differently.
Speaker C:Started doing the record with pledge music because, you know, we wanted to make the record that we wanted to make and that we felt was right and we wanted to keep the audience that we built, you know, involved in what we're doing.
Speaker C:So we wanted people to say, hey, this is us right now working on this song in the studio.
Speaker C:Check it out.
Speaker C:And pledge music is cool because it's like a crowdsourcing site, but you can really take part in the process of the record.
Speaker C:So you see it from start to finish.
Speaker C:You can watch it on the website, you know.
Speaker C:So we did that to fund the recording so we can make the record we wanted to and how we wanted to and have it sound how we wanted to.
Speaker C:And once we had the record in hand, it's coming out now on Julian Records, which is a label based out of New York City and they're kind of a very artist friendly label.
Speaker C:So basically they let you make the record you want and the album cover and everything.
Speaker C:You basically present them with a finished product and then you work hand in hand on the best strategy to get it out with our management, start the cycle how you want it to.
Speaker C:You can hire whoever you want for pr, for radio, for this, that or the other thing.
Speaker C:So it's really, it's not like you're just in some mass machine that's already established and they just throw you in there whether or not you fit.
Speaker C:You know, it's really artist Friendly.
Speaker C:And they pick who works with each artist very specifically based on the record you make.
Speaker C:For us, it worked out, and we're really happy with it.
Speaker C:And I think in an artist at our band, our size, the size we are now, you know, we couldn't have asked for a better, more ideal situation to launch the new record, because sometimes if you're on a major label, you know, you're a small fish in kind of a big pond, and they already have their wheels in motion, and they work with the same people all the time who might not get the record you made, you know, might be more chances for not the best bang for your buck, so to speak.
Speaker C:So I think with Julian, it really gave us an opportunity to first and foremost be creative and also try and get the music heard the way we wanted it to be heard, you know?
Speaker B:Well, so you mentioned album art.
Speaker B:How did you all make those decisions?
Speaker C:Well, we called a guy named Jeffrey Crowe, who did our first record.
Speaker C:He's a live records go to guy for album art and friends with him.
Speaker C:So we were looking for artists to make the record, and I called Jeff and I said, hey, Jeff, you know, we want to do something called Three Shots.
Speaker C:Soon to be wife said, you know, it'd be a really cool album cover.
Speaker C:Would be if you just have a bullet look like it went through the whole.
Speaker C:The whole album, you know, so, like, to be the front is bullet hole, and then on the back is like the exit hole, you know, so.
Speaker C:Wow, that's kind of really cool.
Speaker C:So I told Jeff about that idea, and he kind of sent over four or five different looks and kind of just picked the one we wanted and then showed it to the label, and pretty easy.
Speaker B:And you've got some vinyl to really appreciate that art with.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker C:Well, that was the thing that struck me, because once she said it out, like, yeah, on a vinyl, you know, that would look so cool.
Speaker C:Just you see one side, and you turn the vinyl over, and it just looks like a bullet hole through a record.
Speaker C:That would be really cool.
Speaker B:What did that creatively allow you all to do with liner notes, et cetera?
Speaker C:Well, you definitely put more into the vinyl, you know, this time I wanted the art to be a little more minimal, one cool image that people get.
Speaker C:But I just think the space of it looks so cool, you know, the vinyl, something about holding it that's like a good novel or something, you know, you just feel like there's more weight to it because there's such a niche market for it, and people who are into vinyl Are like Die Hard into vinyl.
Speaker C:So if you can get a fan base that appreciates vinyl, it's better because nobody's buying CDs and stuff, so you can get at least some records sold.
Speaker B:It definitely has the special factor with it, especially now.
Speaker C:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker C:I was mostly listening to vinyl myself.
Speaker C:When I'm home, you know, I prefer vinyl.
Speaker B:Hey, y'.
Speaker B:All.
Speaker A:This is Sloan Spencer, the host of Country Fried Rock.
Speaker A:Those of y' all who listen on our podcasts, it's a quick hit of just the conversation.
Speaker B:If you want the full radio program.
Speaker A:With all the songs that we talk about, ask for it on your local radio station, joining 20 other stations across the country.
Speaker A:Get the goods atcountry fried rock dot org.
Speaker C:Hey, this is Mike from Hollis Brown.
Speaker C:If you want to know more about the band, you can check us out@hollisbrown.com, find all our social media content there.
Speaker B:I was just scoring a few little record store day specials myself yesterday, so.
Speaker C:Oh, yeah, did you get anything cool?
Speaker B:Yeah, I did, actually.
Speaker B:There's this band from Alabama that was on the show a couple years ago called St. Paul and the Broken Bones, and they did a 7 inch that was cut in the shape of the state of Alabama, so I had to get that.
Speaker B:And then I'm a huge Replacements fan, so I had to get the replacements 10 inch.
Speaker B:Even though I have everything thing, it's.
Speaker B:I had to get it right.
Speaker C:Yeah, I love that band.
Speaker C:Great replacement, Alex Chilton.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:That's on this 10 inch.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's.
Speaker B:I mean, they're the reason that I learned about Big Star.
Speaker C:Yeah, right.
Speaker C:I mean, Big Star is one of my favorite bands.
Speaker C:I love their first two records.
Speaker B:Yeah, that number one really good.
Speaker C:There's a song called 13 Big Star did.
Speaker C:Beautiful.
Speaker C:Elliot Smith did a good cover of that one, too.
Speaker B:Yeah, total random tangential thing.
Speaker B:I haven't heard the Jessica Lee Mayfield, Seth Avett thing of all the Elliot Smith songs yet, but I've heard about it.
Speaker C:Oh, I haven't heard that either.
Speaker C:I haven't heard that either.
Speaker B:What got you in the music bug?
Speaker C:Oh, man.
Speaker C:Probably definitely the Beatles.
Speaker C:I mean, when I was.
Speaker C:That was my first love affair with music was listening to the Beatles in like fourth grade or fifth grade.
Speaker C:Oh, my God, this is incredible.
Speaker C:That would be my number one grouper.
Speaker C:I think they're the most important and the best as well.
Speaker C:Artists of modern pop world, you know, I think they're brilliant.
Speaker C:But I think for this record I'm listening to a lot of Vicky Stardust is a record that I really love Velvet Underground.
Speaker C:Huge influence on us.
Speaker C:I mean, it's so hard to pinpoint, you know what I mean?
Speaker C:I feel like, especially today with the way the Internet is and everything is so quick and so quick, you know, you're getting.
Speaker C:It's hard to get inspired by one particular thing.
Speaker C:I feel like it's just society and New York City and just the whole way things go that, you know, it's hard to pinpoint one inspiration now.
Speaker C:There's so much coming at you.
Speaker B:Do you have buddy bands that y' all like to play with?
Speaker C:Oh, yeah, of course.
Speaker C:Yeah, there's tons of bands.
Speaker C:I mean, Jesse is obviously a really good friend of ours.
Speaker C:Each city kind of has its own band that we associate it with.
Speaker C:There's a band called John the Conqueror, who is in Philadelphia.
Speaker B:Love that.
Speaker C:On a live record.
Speaker C:A really cool band, man.
Speaker C:I don't know.
Speaker C:There's just so many bands.
Speaker C:You know, we.
Speaker C:Me and John, we grew up in New York City, so there's musicians everywhere.
Speaker C:A band called Caveman coming out of New York.
Speaker C:That's really good.
Speaker C:Yeah, there's just so many.
Speaker C:Feel like you meet musicians all over the place in this city.
Speaker B:How did you all end up partnering with Counting Crows and Citizen Cope for this big tour?
Speaker C:Well, Adam Durrits, who's the lead singer of the County Crows, him and a guy named Ryan Spaulding, who runs a blog out of Boston called Ryan Smashing Life.
Speaker C:Yeah, they do a CMJ party every year and a South by Southwest party every year called the Outlaw Roadshow.
Speaker C:They pick bands that they really like to, I guess, records or whatever the they liked, and they asked the bands to come and play.
Speaker C:And it's like two days long, this epic amount of bands.
Speaker C:It's crazy.
Speaker C:It's like, from noon to, like, 2 in the morning.
Speaker C:And we headlined the one that they did in New York City for cmj.
Speaker C:We kind of met Adam there and just were hanging out and then sent them the record and got a call to see if we wanted to be on the tour.
Speaker C:So it was really just, you know, I guess we impressed the right guy on the right day.
Speaker C:They do it at the Bowery Electric in New York City during cmj, and then they do it in Austin and during south by Southwest.
Speaker C:But I think it's a different venue.
Speaker C:It's not just the same venue all the time.
Speaker C:Both of those festivals are crazy.
Speaker C:But, I mean, it's really the only way for people, the industry people.
Speaker C:You know, a lot of music festivals now are for just people who latch Onto it like Coachella or Bonner was like the coolest thing to do.
Speaker C:But I feel like south by Southwest and CMJ for industry people, they're really like the only way that you can try and get people to your show.
Speaker C:In south by Southwest, we had Julian Records there and from the agency group, and then we had European booking agents and European record labels and journalists all in one rooms at the same time.
Speaker C:It's like, that's not going to happen anywhere else for a band, you know?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And for the scale where we are, we hit up Americana Fest in Nashville and Folk alliance because that's where we hit our in IBM A when possible.
Speaker C:Oh, yeah.
Speaker C:I heard that festival is really cool, actually in Nashville.
Speaker B:Yeah, actually, it really is.
Speaker B:It's a little crazy, but it's definitely industry heavy.
Speaker C:On the new record, we did a duet with a girl named Nikki Lane.
Speaker C:She's a friend of ours from Nashville for a couple years now.
Speaker C:And we had this song called Highway 1 for the new album.
Speaker C:And when I was writing, I kept hearing it.
Speaker C:It's like a phone conversation, you know, between a man and a woman.
Speaker C:Like old lovers catching up and haven't talked in a while.
Speaker C:But I kept hearing a girl singing it, not me, just singing the whole thing.
Speaker C:So we were looking for a girl.
Speaker C:I asked her to sing, and she was more than happy to do so.
Speaker C:So we got to get together and she sang on the track, and she's doing really good.
Speaker A:I'm your host, Sloane Spencer.
Speaker A:You can keep in touch with us on Facebook.
Speaker A:But I really like Twitter, where we are at country fried rock, ending with hey.
Speaker A:And if you want to see pictures.
Speaker B:Of my shoes, my dog, and my.
Speaker A:Lunch, stop by Instagram.
Speaker A:But whatever way you like to hang out, stop by and say, hey.
Speaker C:Hey.
Speaker C:This is Mike from Hollis Brown.
Speaker C:You can check out our new record, three shots, on iTunes.
Speaker B:Well, speaking of collaborations and duets, explain to me how the Bo Diddley thing came around.
Speaker C:Yeah, we were doing a house concert series called Live at Drew's in New Jersey.
Speaker C:Someone from the Bo Dilly estate was there.
Speaker C:Kind of a cool concert series where there's a natural crowd.
Speaker C:And one of the members of the Bo Diddley estate was there, and she heard us play, and she approached us after and said, oh, Diddley has hours and hours of unfinished material that's just demos and rough recordings and stuff.
Speaker C:And she was wondering if we wanted to maybe listen to it and see if we can come up with something, because they were looking for a kind of a young band to.
Speaker C:Not that Bo Diddley needs it.
Speaker C:But bring the name and sound of Bo Diddley to keep it fresh for a new generation, etc.
Speaker C:So we said, sure, we'd love to listen to it.
Speaker C:And she sent us a link.
Speaker C:There was no vocals on it.
Speaker C:It was just really rough.
Speaker C:It was just kind of him chugging along and had this synth part on it and like a drum machine on it.
Speaker C:And we said, you know, we'd love to try and work with it, but we can't use all of it.
Speaker C:I mean, we can use the guitar.
Speaker C:So we all collectively decided we were going to just keep his guitar as the basis of the track.
Speaker C:We finished it and it was pretty awesome, actually.
Speaker C:It happened really fast.
Speaker C:We recorded it in Brooklyn at a Converse rubber track with a produce named.
Speaker B:Kieran Kelly Kenan was just recently featured on Humans in New York.
Speaker B:The photography thing that he was wearing a blue scarf.
Speaker B:Well, the only reason I know is because he produced the first record of Madison Square Gardeners that my friend Aaron Lee Tasgin was in.
Speaker C:Yeah, I know he did that record.
Speaker C:And he did like Subgen Stevens, Illinois record.
Speaker C:I think he's done a bunch of stuff.
Speaker C:But anyway, yeah, I know that he's really cool guy, actually, we're friends.
Speaker C:It was really quick, you know, we said, hey, Karen, can you.
Speaker C:I think it was like Tuesday.
Speaker C:He was like, karen, can you come on Friday and help us get this track in order?
Speaker C:And he's like, sure.
Speaker C:So he showed up at the studio and we had one day to record everything.
Speaker C:So we had this bow guitar track and the rest was all in one day recording, you know, then we mixed it and edited it and, you know, it was a process afterwards, so.
Speaker C:But everything you hear on the song was laid down in one day.
Speaker C:So it's pretty like playing with loaded ammo kind of, you know.
Speaker B:But that whole Converse rubber track studio thing is amazing.
Speaker C:Yeah, it's really amazing.
Speaker C:It's really cool that they do that.
Speaker C:What they seem to tell us is that musicians have been keeping them from buying their sneakers for forever.
Speaker C:So it's a way to give back.
Speaker C:And the studio is really nice and everybody's really cool.
Speaker B:So what else do y' all have on deck with the release?
Speaker C:We're going to Mexico in a couple days.
Speaker C:We're doing something called the Sunset Sessions down there in Tulum.
Speaker C:We're just going to be promoting the record.
Speaker C:We got some music videos coming out.
Speaker C:We're playing a record release show in New York on May 6th.
Speaker C:Playing Summer Stage over the summer.
Speaker C:A lot of Shows, you know, we're just going to be gigging around the Northeast up until the big national tour comes up in a couple months.
Speaker C:Then we'll head to Europe.
Speaker B:Where did the band name come from?
Speaker C:The band name comes from a Bob Dylan song, actually.
Speaker C:It's called the Ballad of Hollis Brown.
Speaker C:We were throwing around band names forever, it seemed, and nobody liked anything.
Speaker C:And I was just like, let's just name it after a song.
Speaker C:You know, the Rolling Stones pick the Muddy Water song.
Speaker C:And it worked for them.
Speaker C:So we kept throwing around all these song names.
Speaker C:Then somebody said, hollis Brown.
Speaker C:And I don't know, we were just tired of all saying no or what happened.
Speaker C:But we're like, yeah, that sounds cool, because it sounds like it's identifiable and it's one.
Speaker C:One person almost.
Speaker C:But we're a band, so it's not really that either.
Speaker C:It's cool.
Speaker C:Play on it.
Speaker C:The longer we've been a band now, I'm starting to realize that the name reflects the sound of our band because, you know, we're a songwriting first band.
Speaker C:We sound like we're an American band.
Speaker C:So I think both of those come across with the Dylan reference.
Speaker B:So you'd mentioned a little bit that about how it recorded.
Speaker B:And then the one track with Converse, Rubber tracks.
Speaker B:How did y' all end up getting the record mixed?
Speaker C:Yeah, well, it's cool.
Speaker C:We had Don Delego, who produced most of the record, and then we had Kieran, who produced one song.
Speaker C:And we have Wait for Me Virginia, which Adam Landry produced from our session that we did while we were on tour.
Speaker C:We just stopped by.
Speaker C:So we had all these music that was very cohesive, but it all was recorded kind of in different ways in different places.
Speaker C:So we needed the right guy to just mix it all together and make it sound like it's one record.
Speaker C:We got John Agnello to do it, who's been a friend of mine for a couple years.
Speaker C:I really.
Speaker C:I've always wanted to work with him because I think he makes incredible records.
Speaker C:He did the Kurt Weill record.
Speaker C:He's on Phosphorescence, latest record.
Speaker C:You know, Dinosaur Jr. You name it.
Speaker C:He's worked with Mick Jagger.
Speaker C:I mean, the guy, he's been all over the place.
Speaker C:He's one of the best mixers in the music business, period.
Speaker C:I got to spend a week with him, pretty much mixing the album in Brooklyn.
Speaker C:I really just learned so much from the guy.
Speaker C:It was really a great experience to be worked with someone who's done the job as well and as often.
Speaker C:And as successfully as he had, you know, so it was great.
Speaker B:That's cool.
Speaker B:And it's nice that you got to participate in that as well.
Speaker C:Yeah, I mean, I just kind of sat there and just like drank wine and watched him do it, but it was cool, you know, I just tried to be like a fly on the wall and be a sponge, you know, I think as an artist, being hands on is cool, but it's also can make the record deteriorate.
Speaker C:You're too on top of it and it's too much.
Speaker C:Sometimes you need other people who have fresh ears and aren't as attached to this part of that part.
Speaker C:So it was good to have John come in because he just was hearing everything fresh and he could decide, hey, maybe this something that I thought, hey, we should make this louder or have this effect on it.
Speaker C:He heard it in a completely different way, you know, so it was interest awesome.
Speaker B:Mike Montale of Hollis Brown looking forward to three shots.
Speaker B:Thank you for being on Country Fried Rock.
Speaker C:Thanks for having me.
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